State Library Victoria

Revision as of 21:15, 9 November 2025

The State Library Victoria has been awarded Wikimedia Australia Partner Project funding for 2024-2025.

The Project

The Radical Acts: Including Australian Feminist Activism in the Historical Record project aims to address gender bias in Wikipedia and improve the representation of Australian feminist activists and movements. Drawing from SLV’s extensive collection of Australian feminism and Women’s Liberation materials, the project will work with two Wikimedians-in-residence to enhance Wikipedia biographies and seek to find creative and practical applications of Wikidata in the GLAM sector.

Phase 1: Wikimedians-in-Residence

In 2025, from February to June, Wikimedians Kerrie Burn and Adawoolf have been working in the roles of Wikimedian-in-Residence at the State Library of Victoria. They are also supported by mentor, Pru Mitchell. A dashboard has been set up to track the activity of the two Wikimedians-in-Residence working on the project.

News about the residency

From Archives to Wikipedia: Documenting Australian Feminism Through Radical Acts Blog post by Kerrie Burn, Wikimedian-in-Residence at the State Library of Victoria, February-June 2025

Radical Acts - SLV blog post Blog post by Ellie Watts who has worked with Kerie Burn to create new Wikipedia biographies, improve existing articles, and link Wikipedia content with SLV catalogue records.

Wikimedians-in-residence A blog post from Ellie and Kerrie wrapping up the project now that the residency is at an end. The post summarises some of the project’s main achievements.

Phase 2: WikiFest

WikiFest was an unconference held at State Library Victoria on Wednesday, 27 August 2025. Hosted by the SLV LAB and in partnership with Wikimedia Australia, Australian GLAM workers gained hands-on experience with Wikidata and explored new possibilities for open access and cultural equity. The WikiFest followed on from the SLV's Radical Acts project undertaken by Wikimedians in Residence, Kerrie Burn and Ellie Watts.

WikiFest Presentations:

Tim Sherratt: Combining Wikidata and GLAM data
Phizz Telford: Making copyright-free images available
Alex Lum: What is Wikidata?
Julia Rodwell: How linked open data helped build an exhibition
Paul Duchesne: Linking ACMI's collection data

Read more about WikiFest

WikiFest at the State Library of Victoria Guest post by presenter Tim Sherratt, talking about his experiences using Wikidata in combination with GLAM data to enrich his historical research – helping to glue together different collections and their data.

State Library Victoria WikiFest Blog post from Pru Mitchell for ''This Month in GLAM'', the monthly newsletter of the international Wiki GLAM movement. Pru gives an overview of what was achieved during the workshop.

WikiFest 2025 unlocks open knowledge Blog post by Dilan Gunawardana with links to resources from other presenters. Dilan reflects on the value of prototyping and community collaboration, as well as the appetite across GLAM for deeper engagement with Wikimedia platforms.

SLV: How to query Wikidata How to query Wikidata A practical guide to querying Wikidata, through three different endpoints. This guide by Sotirios Alpanis, breaks down a complex query to provide insights into how Wikidata is stored and structured.

Contacts

Toni Burton (Collection Curation and Engagement Manager), State Library Victoria.

Events

WikiFest at State Library Victoria - August 2025 guest blog post by Tim Sherratt.

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